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Hollande reneges on Palestine UN bid

– By Pauline McNeill After posting a blog on how to Influence the UK to support the Palestinians in the UN and submitting the text for USi, I emailed John v Whitbeck who I mention in the article. His reply, as always prompt, outlines the news that he h …

After posting a blog on how to Influence the UK to support the Palestinians in the UN and submitting the text for USi, I emailed John v Whitbeck who I mention in the article. His reply, as always prompt, outlines the news that he has just written to the Palestinian Ambassador in Paris on this very topic. In his letter he says.

“One may wonder why Abu Mazen thought it constructive to visit François Hollande BEFORE the French legislative elections.

At least publicly, all that this visit appears to have produced is a public statement by Hollande (with Abu Mazen by his side) that France will recognize the State of Palestine only AFTER Israel does – an effective revocation of his “Pledge No. 59” to the French people and a veritable slap in the face for Abu Mazen and the Palestinian people.

I hope that the non-public discussions were less catastrophic and leave open some grounds for hope.”

It was for this type of scenario that I was careful in my article to say that French Presidential hopeful François Hollande “seems“ to have pledged to support the bid for Statehood at the UN. We have come to expect disappointment on the issue of Palestine as world leaders eventually feel the pressure on the International stage and it rarely results in favour of the Palestinians. It’s a shame that it appears to have happened so soon. However it does looks likely that the issue will return to the UN.

It seems to me that the same principle applies to France as it does to the UK, which is that, the general French public want to see progress towards peace and movement towards a real solution giving Palestinians recognition of Statehood, physical control and unfettered governance over the 22 % of the land they were displaced from to form the basis of a state. So any one interested in this conflict or reading about it whether in France, the UK or elsewhere should not leave it to the leaders who can’t always do what they wanted to do. Lobby your elected members, campaign, press for a change in approach and for pledges such as pledge 59 to honored.

Do your bid to support the Palestinians and the basis for peace in the region.

Walton Pantland

South African trade unionist living in Glasgow. Loves whisky, wine, running and the great outdoors. Walton did an MA in Industrial Relations at Ruskin, Oxford, and is interested in how trade unions use new technology to organise.